Special Guest: Volodymyr Yermolenko, President of PEN Ukraine
PEN Romania Conferences, January 29, 2026
Many observers inquire as to how Ukraine has managed to sustain such a high level of resistance. My point is that culture and literature play a key role in this resistance, as they provide deep roots of the way how Ukrainians understand themselves.
But first we have to understand that the level of the cruelty of the Russian army is enormous. The Russian leadership is indifferent not only to Ukrainian lives but also to the lives of its own personnel. Currently, Russia is losing approximately 1,000 soldiers per day.
In response, Ukraine is developing various technologies, particularly in the field of drones, with the primary objective of making the price of aggression unbearable for the Russian Federation.
The Russian army not fighting for resources or a superior geopolitical position; rather, the fundamental goal of the Russian war is expansion for its own sake—the capacity to apply systemic violence. The current regime is built upon the premise that violence equals power; the more violent the state, the more powerful it considers itself to be.
Even under these conditions, Russian progress is remarkably slow, occupying a mere one percent of Ukrainian territory annually. Despite initial claims of destroying Ukraine quickly\, Russia has now been waging war against Ukraine for twelve years, dating back to the initial invasion in 2014.
The Historical Roots of Resistance
The question remains: what is the source of this capacity for resistance? The answer lies first in Ukrainian history. For several centuries, the Ukrainian self-conception has been fundamentally linked to the idea of political freedom and the construction of an anti-tyrannical state—one that rejects the models of empire and monarchy.
This intellectual thread persisted through the 19th and 20th centuries, despite regular attempts at extermination by the Russian vision of the world.
Since at least the 16th century, the Russian political project has functioned as an imperial endeavor, seeking to replace Byzantium as a “Third Rome.” At every critical juncture in its history, Russia has attempted to reinvent this imperial concept using different ideas popular at that time. An empire can be defined as an entity with a single center but no defined borders, driven by an inherent need to expand; conversely, a republic is defined by its borders, though it does not necessarily require a single center.
For centuries, Ukraine has endeavored to exist as such a republic—a pluralistic entity with clear borders and an understanding of its sovereign lands, but characterized by multiple centers. It is incorrect to view Ukraine solely through the lens of Kyiv. Ukraine is inherently pluralistic, consisting of various cities and regions—such as Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Donetsk, Bakchisaray and many others —that maintain distinct identities and local autonomy.
Self-Organization and the Strength of Society
The second key element is that, over recent decades, Ukrainians have mastered the art of self-organization through successive revolutions: the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, and the response to the 2014 invasion.
These events taught citizens how to mobilize independently of the state. In a vacuum of strong state institutions, the active citizenry was forced to create alternative modes of organization. Consequently, because the state was historically weak, the society became exceptionally strong.
This dynamic is evident in the current organization of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The less successful components of the military are those that still operate under the legacy of the Soviet army. In contrast, the most successful units are those that have integrated the experience of civil society, including its technological expertise and democratic spirit.
One might say that while in Russia, society is organized like an army, in Ukraine, the army is organized like a society—incorporating democratic and even occasionally anarchic elements to achieve its goals.
The Nature of Russian Imperialism
It is crucial to understand that Russia is a continental empire rather than a maritime one. Many people in the world struggle to grasp this distinction because they view imperialism through a maritime framework—the colonization of distant peoples across oceans. Such maritime empires often utilize a racist discourse to justify the subjugation of those who are perceived as «different.”
Russian imperialism, however, is an imperialism of assimilation, i.e. an imperialism of identity, not difference. It seeks to colonize geographically, ethnically, or religiously proximate peoples by asserting that they are identical to the colonizer.
The Russian narrative claims that Ukrainians do not exist as a separate nation and that any manifestation of a distinct identity is a “deviation” or a “disease” that must be exterminated. This distinction—imperialism of identity versus imperialism of difference—is vital to understanding the current conflict.
Culture as a Living Legacy
Finally, the role of literature within Ukrainian culture is paramount, as is often the case in nations where state-building was historically suppressed.
Figures such as Taras Shevchenko are not merely historical relics; Ukrainians actively work with their classics to modernize them and apply them to contemporary realities. This is seen in modern cultural “memes” where 19th-century authors are depicted in military uniforms or contemporary attire.
This cultural vitality is also intrinsically linked to the “Executed Renaissance”—a term referring to the 1920s, when a generation of Ukrainian writers was exterminated by the Stalinist regime. This pattern of cultural suppression repeated in the 1960s with the imprisonment of intellectuals in the Gulags.
Today, we are witnessing a new cycle of this tragedy. The late Victoria Amelina, while documenting the life of Volodymyr Vakulenko—a writer kidnapped and murdered by Russian forces—noted that she felt herself to be living within a new “Executed Renaissance.” Tragically, she was killed by a Russian missile strike only one month after publishing that reflection.
There is a prevailing sense that we are existing on a precipice; every cultural renaissance in Ukraine is met with a Russian attempt at extermination, rendering this a definitive battle for existence—an existential struggle.